Probe into Paris attacks leads to another suspect

An undated file picture, released on November 24, 2015 by Belgian federal police, shows Mohamed Abrini, who was seen at a gas station in northern France on November 11 together with Salah Abdeslam, another suspect in the November 13 terrorist attacks in the French capital, Paris. (Photo by AFP)

Investigations into the deadly November 13 attacks in the French capital, Paris, have led to the issuance of an international arrest warrant against another suspect in the case.

The state prosecutor’s office in Belgium – where the attacks are thought to have been nurtured after being planned in Syria – said on Tuesday it had issued an arrest warrant for Mohamed Abrini.

The 30-year-old was caught on camera with Salah Abdelslam, another suspect, two days before the attacks.

The series of coordinated bombings and armed attacks against different venues, including a concert hall, in the French capital killed 130 people and injured 350 others. Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly active in Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the terror acts.

A makeshift memorial for the victims of the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks is seen in front of the Casa Nostra restaurant in the French capital, November 23, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Abdelslam is suspected of having intended an attack on the day, but “abandoned” it because “he had a technical problem” with his explosive vest. He has reportedly headed toward Germany after unsuccessful raids by police in Belgium, where he was thought to have gone into hiding.

The camera footage shows him together with Abrini at a gas station in northern France, the latter driving a Renault Clio car that was later used in the attacks.

Abrini has, meanwhile, been described as “dangerous and probably armed.”

The suspected mastermind of the strikes, Belgian Abdalhamid Abaaoud, died during a police raid on an apartment in a northern Paris suburb in the days after the attacks. According to Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins, Abaaoud was planning to bomb the city’s La Defense business district on November 18 or 19.